It was now relatively light and Nick took his turn at the wheel again. I was quite content to sit in the back and sleep once more. The only parts of the journey that I noticed were when we stopped off for petrol, and having Nick and Dave buy drinks for us all. On one stretch of open road, Dave offered me a cheese and pickle sandwich. I took a bite and instantly began to feel ill, so I put the other half down. I was eventually sick, however. Nick noticed, Dave laughed and we pulled up. I couldn’t get the words out but beckoned them to go on. They continued reluctantly and I looked ahead through the windscreen. Time was of the essence.
DISASTER!!!
We finally reached Pen-Y-Pass (near Llanberis) at approx. 11:00am and saw the car park we were going to park in. DISASTER!!! An old attendant in a yellow coat beckoned us on as the car park was full with Easter Bank holiday traffic. We drove past, looking for spaces by the Pen-Y-Pass Youth Hostel, and then in the numerous lay-bys on the way down valley to Llanberis. There were none. Many things ran through our heads. First of which was where the hell were we going to start. We had numerous options. A), All of us could start out at Llanberis and climb the longer, but flatter Snowdon Path. B), Dave could drop off Nick and I, before returning down the valley to find the first available parking space, and then run up the road again to tackle the Miners' Track (our original plan) 20 minutes behind us, or C), Dave could drop us off at the Miners' Track and then tackle the Snowdon Path himself, meet us at the summit at 13:30hrs, before descending with Nick and me to the Miners' Track, with hopefully time to spare. This Bank holiday parking nightmare could seriously screw up the whole challenge. I was very concerned at this stage that we could fail the challenge purely through not being able to park due to Bank holiday traffic at Pen-Y-Pass.
Lucky stars
However after returning to the car park to try the attendant bloke again, and asking for a place to purely unload, after a plea to park due to the three peaks challenge had failed, a car left the car park, whilst we were unloading, which the attendant duly offered us. Fifteen minutes of time and panic had been spent, but a sigh of relief was in evidence on all of our faces. We packed the rucksacks, filled the bottles, went to the toilet in turn and headed off, (11:15hrs). Dave ended up carrying all my gear to help me out, (such was my general condition).
Under Pressure
The first mile or two was around Llyn Lydaw and was relatively flat. Dave’s consensus here was that time may not be on our side on the descent so we had a 2 minute jog to the base of the climb. We chose the Miners' Track as it is regarded to be easier than the Pyg Track which is parallel but 200 yards higher up. The Pyg Track would have involved more technical walking and wouldn’t have allowed us to run back to Pen-Y-Pass if we had needed to have done so. Dave had calculated precisely between certain points what our walking time was, so we’d know how much time we could make up on the way back if we had to run. Snowdon seemed to rise magnificently high ahead of us to our left as we ascended. At the snow line it wasn’t worth putting the crampons on, or holding an ice axe, so these lifesavers from earlier on, now became worthless pieces of luggage for us. Dave kept spurring us on, still weary about the time, offering comments such as "It’s all in your mind, keep on walking!". It was utmost in my mind at this time that we might not complete the challenge. After an hour or so we saw people perhaps 15 minutes ahead of us reaching the top of the track, and turning left towards the summit on the mountain ridge. At this point Nick looked very exhausted and dehydrated. I obligingly carried his pack for him, (after all I wasn’t carrying anything) and could feel why Nick was starting to suffer. It was incredibly heavy, and it made me wonder how Dave had managed in theory to carry two sacks the whole way up.
No time for a cup of tea!
From thereon I recognised the last 400 yards leading up to the summit from a bike ride up the mountain in the previous summer, and I was at this point confident we could reach the summit and descend with time to spare. We had ascended in 1 hour 45 minutes and had 2 hours to descend, (relatively easy barring mishaps). At the summit the customary pictures were taken and we felt we had enough time to buy a can from the shop at the summit. With the number of people at the top that day (Bank holiday Sunday), I was in no doubt that we would be able to. Sods' law it was shut, so for the hundreds of people who had braved the climb, recollection of their climb and a bad view of the surrounding mountains (due to summit cloud) was their only reward. A funny emotion came over me at the top. A feeling of anxiety on the climb from realising that we might fail the challenge was quickly replaced by a feeling of anti-climax as we knew we would now complete the 24 hour challenge. The feeling of elation and success had almost completely passed us by. For us at this point it almost seemed as if it was all over, yet we still had almost 2 hours to go.
The Pyg track leading back down to Llyn Lydaw.
Success!!!!!!!!
We returned to the gully indicating the start of the Miners' track, at which point Nick asked for his rucksack back (who was I to say no), and we descended. A technique of scree jumping seemed the quickest way to descend until we again reached the well-laid boulder track once more (ideal for combating erosion, but weary on tired legs). We reached the flatter section of the track by the Llyn, took a breather and realised the time was 13:45hrs and we had 75 minutes to spare. We chatted about many things on the way back to Pen-Y-Pass. Nicks' topic of conversation was interspersed mainly with the latest news about his blisters. Dave kept describing explicitly his first pint in the Vaynol Arms pub on the way down to Llanberis, and I was generally discussing how I couldn’t believe we had actually done it.
We eventually turned the last corner and saw the car in the distance in the still packed car park. The last downhill 100 yards filled us with great achievement as we bathed in the mid afternoon sun. As soon as we hit the tarmac Dave stopped the stopwatch:
23 hours 37 minutes!!!
Not a world record but still well-deserved considering there was only 3 of us, with no other helpers, in a small car in snowy April conditions. We had a picture taken of us to savour the moment and then checked into the youth hostel opposite for a well deserved rest. Needless to say the weather the next day was wet, cold and miserable with visibility considerably reduced. We had been amazingly lucky with both the weather (mid to high 60's) and the travelling down from Ben Nevis, and all it left us to do now was drive down to the Brecon Beacons stopping off at various tourist villages to enjoy the rest of our holiday. Funnily enough we didn’t use our walking boots again that week, and resorted to more leisurely footwear for sedate window shopping.
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Snowdon